Over the years we have written many plays and other texts. Most of these – as with most community plays – go unpublished and are often lost, even though they might contain all kinds of research and ideas within them around notions of heritage and culture, of place and history and collectivity. We think that’s a shame. Here are a handful of scripts which you might find interesting.
The Vital Spark
Very much a learning experience, being our first site-specific, heritage based community play. With such a dramatic backdrop the script aimed to tell a story that was both epic, romantic, and filled with local detail.
A Lifetime Guarantee
This script was for a touring play that sought to tell the entire history of Raleigh. It was based on pretty extensive research, interviews with ex-workers, and a desire to create something really playful that had a bicycle – and the riding of this – at the heart of it.
Night of the Zeppelin
Ten people were killed in Loughborough in 2016, all through bad luck. This script sought to play on the random nature of that day by creating a play for many venues which had a beginning and an end and many scenes inbetween that could be seen in any order (being repeated across the weekend).
Road to Bilborough
It took a long time to write this play, which was based both on archival research and many conversations about life in this Nottingham suburb. The script – for a touring show – absolutely plays with ideas of place and belonging and community and had a wonderful reception. One of our favourites!
The Chilwell Munitions Tragedy
This was for a show in Beeston Town Square, needing amplified narration accompanied by visual action. Based on archival research it used four central (imagined) characters to lead the audience through the terrible events of July 1918.
The Rutlanders Return
A touring play that explored the social impact of the First World War on Rutland. Lots of reading on all sorts of things to write this script, which endeavoured to tell both a local and a national story and which featured songs as a narrative device.
The Cries of Silent Men
A tricky challenge with spaces that could fit a large audience and spaces that couldn’t; all of which we wanted to use. This is a prime example of how space can shape narrative; and of how period can shape the language of a script.
Breathing Spaces
The main challenge here was to write a site-specific piece for four different sites. It was commissioned by the University of Nottingham to present their research into the social use of the city’s parks, and approached this through a chronological lens.
The Girl In The Woods
Taking place in Bramcote Woods – with all shapes and sizes of interesting spaces to use – this is an interesting example of how local research can be embedded into what was essentially an old fashioned ghost story.
The Country Wager
This was such fun to write as it absolutely followed the rules and tropes of a restoration comedy, with the added fun of adding local detail. The Epilogue has been lost – does anybody have it!
The Triumph of Reason!
A script that attempted to capture the spirit of the enlightenment and to make the most of what we knew would be a wonderful setting. With a decent budget this was also a script with an eye to the set piece.
The Hammer of Defiance
This script was based on research into the Luddite attacks in Ashfield and the subsequent trial in Nottingham. Featuring a mix of ‘real’ and invented characters it attempted to explain what drove the men and their families to take such action.